White House releases Obama birth certificate - Yahoo! News

On

Wednesday morning

the WHITE HOUSE

released the president's long

form birth certificate (pdf) in an attempt to put

'birther' questions to rest.

'The President believed the

distraction over his birth certificate wasn't good

for the country.

It may have been good politics

and good T.V., but it was bad for the

American people and

distracting from

the many challenges

we face as a country,' White House Communications

Director Dan Pfeiffer

said in a statement.

The president had released his certificate of live birth in 2008,

but many 'birthers'

said the absence of a

long form birth certificate prompted questions about

Obama's birthplace of Hawaii.

In recent weeks

potential GOP presidential candidate Donald Trump

has brought birther

questions into the forefront of the media.

At a time of great consequence

for this country--

when we should be debating how

we win the future, reduce our deficit, deal with high gas prices,

and bring stability to the Middle East,

Washington, DC,

was once again distracted by a fake issue,' Pfeiffer said.

'The President's hope is that with this

step, we can move on to debating the bigger issues that matter to

the American people

and the future of the country.'"